NYC Council Hearing Propels Utensils-On-Request Bill Forward

The City Council has moved one step closer to enacting legislation that would require restaurants to provide plastic utensils, condiments and napkins to take-out customers only on request in the nation’s largest city.

If enacted, the bill would simultaneously advance two important New York City policy objectives. It would cut the amount of unwanted plastic waste from take-out orders that is accumulating in the kitchen drawers of millions of New Yorkers, while at the same time reducing food delivery costs for thousands of the city’s COVID-beleaguered restaurants. 

At today’s hearing of the Council’s Consumer Affairs Committee, twenty-two members of the public voiced their support for the legislation, as did Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Sanitation Gregory Anderson. Not a single witness testified against the bill.

The legislation, spearheaded by Queens Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer, now has the support of a majority of the 51-member New York City Council. At the hearing, Councilmember Margaret Chin urged her fellow Committee members to vote favorably on the bill and send the legislation to a vote before the entire Council later this month. Councilmember Kalman Yeger requested that the legislative language make clear that restaurants would receive a warning letter rather than a penalty for a first-time violation, which Councilmember Van Bramer indicated was the intent of all concerned. 

Although not testifying at the hearing, the New York City Hospitality Alliance—the leading representative of the city’s restaurant industry—has publicly expressed support for the bill.

And should the legislation receive a favorable vote in the Council, it is expected to be signed into law by Mayor Bill de Blasio. In 2019, the Mayor issued an Executive Order that directed city agencies to end future purchases of plastic utensils. 

At that time, the Mayor said: “Think about how many things we get that we don’t even use—you go and get your egg sandwich and they put in the multiple packets of ketchup and the salt and pepper and the packet that has a napkin. We don’t need all that.”

Earlier this year, the Los Angeles City Council enacted a similar bill that directs restaurants there to provide utensils only upon request. The bill’s sponsor indicated that California restaurants that had already implemented the policy were saving $3,000 or more a year in reduced expenses.

Other cities that have enacted legislation to cut back on unwanted plastic utensils include Seattle, Portland (OR), Honolulu and Denver.

Councilmember Van Bramer’s New York City legislation—Intro. 1775B, informally called the “Skip-the-Stuff” bill—now seems to have received the green light from Council Speaker Corey Johnson, who has advanced other forward-looking environmental legislation during his tenure.

Among the groups testifying in support of the legislation, in addition to NRDC, were Surfrider, the New York League of Conservation Voters, the Manhattan SWAB, the Sierra Club, Oceana, Beyond Plastics, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, Frederick Samuel Apartments Tenants Association, 350NYC, Cafeteria Culture, 5 Gyres, and Earth Matter NY.

Of course, efforts to curb the ever-growing use of throw-away plastics and to end reliance on fossil-fuels from which plastics are manufactured are still in their early stages. Additional legislation will certainly be needed in 2022 and beyond if we are to slash the production of climate-destroying oil and gas. The Skip-the-Stuff bill, as welcome as its expected passage will be, is only the beginning.